Tribeca Film Festival to spotlight branded films

Brands take center stage at this year's Tribeca Film Festival (April 24 to May 5) during a day dedicated to partnerships between artists and advertisers.

The indie film fest's conference now includes Tribeca X: A Day of Conversations (Friday, April 26) on the state of branded content. Marc Pritchard, chief brand officer at P&G, will be the event's keynote speaker, and other participants include Fiona Carter, AT&T Communications chief brand officer, Doug Melville, TBWA Worldwide chief diversity officer and Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia. Actress Natasha Lyonne will share a filmmaker's perspective.

"Our goal with this is to try to cross-pollinate the world of independent film making and branded work," says festival director Cara Cusumano. "We've been seeing a lot of good work and ideas, and we wanted to carve out more of a space for that."

Panels topics include what's next for women in branded content; opportunities for mission-oriented brands; and immersive technology. A case study on Pepsi's "Uncle Drew" will discuss how it progressed from ad campaign to feature film.

The conference is in addition to the festival's Tribeca X Awards, which honor the best collaborations between brands and artists. The award was expanded this year from a single category to four: best feature, short, episodic and virtual reality films.

Finalists will be screened on Thurs. April 25, and the winners announced during the conference the next day.